


Stay Beautiful

by singasongofdestiel



Category: Supernatural, Taylor Swift (Musician)
Genre: And he gushes a lot, Aromantic Gabriel (implied), Castiel Has a Crush on Dean, Castiel is a Softie, Crush at First Sight, Destiel - Freeform, First Crush, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, POV Gabriel, Sassy Gabriel, Secret Crush, Teenagers, heart eyes, to everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 11:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5125466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singasongofdestiel/pseuds/singasongofdestiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas falls, and keeps falling, for a boy with green eyes and a smile like the radio of an old black Impala - and the worst part is, he makes Gabriel listen to every little detail he could possibly think to say about him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay Beautiful

Brothers were stupid. Gabriel already knew that, so he wasn’t sure why he was so surprised right now.

The baby of the family sat at his feet, glowing with joy and generally making a fool of himself. Gabriel’s 12 year-old brother had gone and found himself a 13 year-old crush, and he wouldn’t shut up about it.

“Gabe, his eyes are like a jungle. They’re so green and deep and—” Such rapture, such innocence. Only one way to respond to that.

In his best whiny mimic, Gabriel brought his world-renowned wit to the foreground. “ _Gabe, his eyes are like jungle.”_

The sparkle in the annoying preteen’s eyes faded, and for a moment Gabriel felt almost sorry— but then he was rewarded with peace and quiet when injured pride forced his brother to lope off. He swung his feet onto his bed (still in his shoes, sucks to The Man) and revelled in the silence.

Even better, about 15 minutes later Balthazar walked past his half-open door with Castiel following him around like a puppy and still rhapsodising.

“When he smiles, it’s like the radio. And he said the funniest thing today; I wish I was funnier so I could make him smile more. Oh, and I was going to tell you what he said…”

That had been a close shave. Sometimes cruelty was more than worth it.

 

* * *

 

 

_Scratch. Scratch._

Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut tighter. This was the 3rd time this week.

_Scratch, scra-scratch._

He wished there was a way to close his ears too. But as the sound of pebbles rattling on the window continued, he could hear Castiel stubbornly refusing to wake up.

At 15, his brother was the heaviest sleeper to be found this side of the grave. Which wouldn’t have been an issue, if he wasn’t constantly visited in the middle of the night by a certain jungle-eyed, radio-smiling 16 year-old.

As Castiel still didn’t rouse himself, Gabriel decided to take matters into his hands. Grabbing his pillow, he strode across the room. “Disturb my precious beauty sleep why don’t you.”

He held a moment, looking at the sleeping angel below him, and then he smashed the tranquil face with all the force he could draw up at 2am on a Thursday. He could feel his lips twisting, this almost made up for—

Nothing. Castiel was still asleep, and the pebbles continued against the glass.

Where did this boy even find pebbles? The Novak family estate was all smooth green grass and burbling streams for as many acres as money could buy this close to town. Never mind the 7-foot gates surrounding the whole property to prevent things like this.

With so much space why couldn’t Gabriel just have his own bedroom?

There was no way around it. Gabriel had tried a reasonable show of force, and that had got him squat. He knew that the pest outside wouldn’t accept a brotherly explanation of the fact that Cas didn’t wake up once his eyes had been closed for longer than 5 seconds, Gabe had tried that the first time. It was almost a shame, to have to do this when he was too tired to fully enjoy it.

Oh well, sacrifices had to be made.

Slowly, savouring the moment of impact, Gabriel poured a jug of water over his brother’s head.

Shocked, spluttering, gasping, Castiel promptly rolled onto the floor. Hard.

In a whisper, full of the venom that 3 nights of bad sleep will very readily provide, Gabriel filled Cas in on the problem.

“Your lover boy is outside, and he’s not going to go away until you talk to him.”

“Wha?” Castiel rubbed his eyes, everything bleared in the strained absence of light. As rationality returned, he was able to conjugate most of a sentence.

“He’s not my lover boy. He’s my best friend.”

_Sure_. Gabriel huffed back to bed. He had friends, good ones— best ones even— but none of them scaled fences in the middle of the night just to talk to him.

That was the worst part. They didn’t even sneak out on these nights, they just talked. For _hours_. In the kind of hushed not-whispers that can’t quite be made out but won’t allow nearby brothers to sleep. Every sibilant, fricative, dental, and not-so-stifled laugh poked at the edges of Gabriel’s range of hearing. If only they would become self-aware enough to sleep with each other. At least then these meet ups would be over relatively quickly and Gabe could get back into a sleeping schedule fit for a high-maintenance person such as himself.

He gave up and opened his eyes. His brother was stood, craning out of the window, still in the boxer shorts he had been sleeping in. _Does he even know how far gone he is?_ Gabe couldn’t fathom being so excited to talk to someone (who he had seen a mere 7 hours before) that he forgot to put on clothes.

The dim darkness didn’t reveal much of what was going on, but Gabriel could make out the occasional animated hand gestures, as well as the one time Cas almost overbalanced and grabbed the window-pane hurriedly. Even with all the air knocked out of him, the loon still had a massive grin on his face. Brothers were beyond stupid.

When they were finished (3:58 am, such an ungodly hour that it was a mortal sin to keep people awake with stupid words that nobody else could know), Castiel slid the window closed. He sighed and turned to Gabriel.

 “He’s really gonna be someone someday Gabe. I hope somehow his life will lead him back to me, once he’s found everything he’s looking for.”

A satirical snort precisely conveyed Gabriel’s feeling on this matter, and he smugly bundled his duvet tighter around him while Castiel stripped his damp bed. Within minutes Cas had fallen asleep again; this time on the floor with an old dressing gown wrapped around him, shivering occasionally.

At last. Gabriel felt absolutely no sympathy for anyone who would keep him up this late. Sleep-deprivation torture had been condemned by the UN, after all. And there was that saying wasn’t there.

_All’s fair in love and war._

 

* * *

 

For once in his life, Gabriel was trying to work. A Saturday morning with a bright 7 o’clock start that he would regret tomorrow put him in the mood to get stuff done. But apparently that wasn’t going to happen right now, because his sister had just plonked herself on the end of his bed.

“What do you want?”

The normally collected Anael blushed until her face almost matched her hair.

“I wanted to ask your advice on something actually.”

Well that was utterly flabbergasting. Anna— 18 and raring to move out and become fully independent— was asking little slacker brother Gabe for advice?

“Which area of my expertise have you come to utilise? And will you be paying by cash or card?” He wiggled his eyebrows, making the most of having this small form of power over her.

“Look if you’re going to be like that, I’m not going to—”

“Hey, hey, let’s not be hasty. Talk to me.”

She bit her lower lip, and her hands twisted tighter in her lap. This was going to be so good.

“You know that boy— the one Castiel always hangs out with.”

“Yes, I know the one. He was outside my window a mere 3 hours ago, would you believe.”

“Uh, yeah actually, I would.”

Okay, this was getting awkward. Was Gabriel going to have to explain Cas’ sexual orientation again? Because really, it wasn’t that hard to get your head around, once Castiel had stated which label he’d chosen.

“Look Anna, I have stuff to do so I’d really like you to get on with it.”

The redhead breathed in, steadying herself.

“Do you think… do you think Castiel would mind if I—”

Anna swallowed, far too loudly for Gabe’s sensibilities to cope with.

“Would he mind if you _What?”_

With grey eyes tied securely to a small blue patch of carpet, Anna finally came out with it.

“If I slept with Dean.”

Gabriel’s mouth was open. It was empty of words, jibes, comebacks. There was nothing he could even think of saying. Because it was obvious Anna wasn’t here to get advice, she was here to be absolved.

She wanted Gabe to say it was all okay, that it wasn’t as if Castiel had been head-over-heels for this guy since the moment he laid eyes on him, that there would be no deep resentment formed when Dean inevitably told his best friend that he had slept with his sister. He shook his head; those weren’t the fun kind of lies to tell.

Gabriel stood up, took Anna by the shoulder, and pushed her out of his room. Silently.

Brothers may be stupid, but sisters were beyond that.

So he sat back down, and waited for Cas to show up.

 

* * *

 

 

Castiel blew in a couple of hours later, eyes wide and in the eye of his own hurricane.

He immediately started pacing, and he immediately started talking.

“Anna. Anna, she, she had—”

“Sex with Deano, yeah I know.”

Cas was so lost that he didn’t ask how he knew, but instead almost screamed, “Don’t call him that!”

Gabriel decided the safest thing was just to listen, so he pulled his legs out of Castiel’s flight path and turned his smirk off.

“I left as soon as I found out. He, he thinks it’s just because Anna’s my sister, so I should have a couple of days I think.”

He raked his hands through his hair, his irises swallowed by terrified pupils and stark-raving scleras.

“Of course, the fact that it was Anna makes it worse. Because she knew.” Here Cas choked off, and his feet stilled.

He sank down to the carpet, and Gabe was interested to note that his forehead rested on the exact spot which Anna had chosen to focus on earlier. But mystical theories would have to wait, because his brother was curled up and sobbing in front of him.

Between strafed breaths, Castiel continued pouring himself out.

“You- all knew. And he- he didn’t have any idea. He ne-ver will. He’s so beau-tiful Gabe.”

At some point, Gabriel had started holding his brother, to stop the shaking if nothing else. This must have helped (or else he was squeezing a bit too tightly) because the tears subsided, and Castiel’s reduced lung capacity forced him to breathe normally.

“There are girls that line up on the sides of the road, just to watch him walking home. Pretty girls.”

His voice got smaller and smaller, sucked into the hollow that replaced a broken heart, or in Gabe’s case, the one that formed if he hadn’t eaten anything for over 3 hours.

“I don’t know why I thought I had a chance.”

Smaller and smaller, dwindling to the size of an unpopped kernel of popcorn, “I’ve been taking pictures in my mind, so I can save them for when he’s gone.”

A sigh was expelled from Cas’ entire body, so very different to the lilac ones that floated from him after his late night conversations. “He’s the highlight of my day Gabe. Even when he’s telling me that he slept with my sister.”

A final shiver, and then Castiel’s voice went cold and still. “Nothing else compares to him.”

Okay, Gabriel had let stupid talk for long enough. For Saint Peter’s sake, he loved his brother, but the carpet was not designed for sitting on and his arms had gone numb from his attempts at comforting.

“Cas, you stupid, stupid, _stupid_ star-crossed lover you.”

A dramatic sigh, which would have been accompanied by a hair flick if he had a free hand, and he delivered the punch line of it all.

“You’re forgetting, my little idiot bro. That even while all these girls are watching your precious green-eyed Adonis, the one he chooses to walk home with is you.”

That was his cue to flounce away. He hadn’t been productive at all in the end, but he felt like an angel of retribution who had just stabbed his stupid sister in the back. Which he kind of had.

 

* * *

 

 

Castiel’s acceptance into the University of his Choice arrived on a Sunday that was smooth enough to skim rocks on. There was no breeze, but no heat either, and from the open window of the brothers’ shared room you could see further than the edge of their property (which was _really_ far).

This was the kind of thing that Gabriel didn’t mind being woken up for. His brother was smiling, and his excitement was held within him like a lantern under a bushel. It lit his every movement, but it didn’t spill over in the way that certain others of his feelings did.

The whole family was home for Easter, so the round of congratulations took up most of the morning. When Castiel excused himself (much later than Gabriel had expected), Gabe found himself approached by two of his more distant brothers. Michael, who studied engineering at MIT and normally felt it was beneath him to talk to higher-education dropouts such as Gabriel, turned to him as soon as Cas left the room.

“Where is our youngest brother going to?” Gabe could tell he was unaccustomed to talking to real people, after being surrounded by computers and their human equivalents for months.

Before Gabriel could explain the whole unrequited love thing, Raphael pushed him to the side.

“I bet I can guess.” Yeah, Raph always wanted a wager— that was what the stock market did to you.

“He came up to me on the day I arrived, telling me all about this one individual.”

He laughed, big and bold, blooming into the corners of the grand dining room. Gabriel would have sworn that he even heard the glass droplets of the chandelier above them tinkling together.

“He asked my advice on how to talk to him, because, and I quote, _It’s hard to hold a conversation anymore, because he just takes my breath away_.”

Well, Castiel had definitely turned to the loudest person in the family. A title which Gabriel had to begrudgingly accept he would never gain, and instead focused on polishing his roles as most annoying, most witty, least mind-bogglingly stupid etc.

Ignoring grubby old Uncle Meta’s tirades on the futility of love, Gabriel explained the situation to his brothers.

As a little poke to an old wound, Gabriel even included Anna’s role in the whole thing. Even if Castiel had forgiven her after two years, Gabe liked to hold his grudges tight.

 

* * *

 

His brother didn’t return until deep blue hung heavily in the corners that were just slightly out of the light’s reach. Hopefully this meant that Dean wouldn’t show up in a few hours (yup, that was still going on). Castiel was breathless and he brought in the other kind of excitement, blazing through his eyes and almost burning him out.

“Gabriel, I told him.”

“Well blow me— you really did Cassie?”

“Yes.” Then he stopped and looked down.

“He said we’d talk tomorrow, that he needed to think.”

Oh Lord, and Cas was still so obviously over the moon. This wasn’t a stupid tween crush anymore; this wasn’t even your average teenage infatuation. Dean rubbed light onto Castiel, gilding his little moth in flaming gold which glittered all the more when he drifted to his doom.

Gabriel didn’t say anything. But he could imagine how the scene would have played out— Castiel had rehearsed his big reveal for years now.

_(Scene) Castiel would have waited for a special place: maybe the tree which he had stood under when he first saw jungle eyes; or the used-car shop where he had first been the cause of the famed radio smile; or maybe just somewhere quiet, where they went when they talked and did nothing else._

_He would have stood— nerves made him restless— licked his lips._

_He would have begun with the consecrated syllable._

**Castiel:** Dean. _Then he probably would have tilted his head, licked his lips again, and cleared his throat._ Dean, I have to tell you something.

**Dean:** Go for it. _Casual because he couldn’t know the cliff they were about to drive off._

**Castiel:** I would like you to listen before you say anything; I want to say this all right. _Possibly trembling with the idea that this was really going to happen, now._

_Dean would have nodded, and the small crease between his eyebrows which Gabriel had been subjected to endless descriptions of would have appeared— he couldn’t be so dense that this would not sound a bit off._

**Castiel:** I know you won’t believe this, but you are beautiful. Every little piece of you.

_Here Dean would try to interrupt, and Cas would have stopped him. Maybe with a shake of the head, maybe (if the moment had got to him) with a finger laid against Dean’s lips._

**Castiel:** You are, Dean. And I need to say this, because otherwise this might become a story that never gets told, or even gets an introduction. I— _Cue blushing, feet shuffling, the inner thoughts saying “Shit, I should **not** have done this” (he was still so stupid)._ I want you to know, that even if this is just a crazy daydream that I could never hold onto, which could never work out, I just want you to know that I—

_This would be accompanied by a significant pause, eyes raised to meet Dean’s. Castiel was dramatic at best and Dean brought out his worst. There would be a sense of expectation in his posture, drawn from all those romcoms where confessions would be reciprocated before even fully verbalised. But obviously this wouldn’t happen because Dean, on the whole, seemed less stupid than Castiel, although he was probably stupid enough that he didn’t know where this was going._

**Castiel:** What I mean to say is, Dean, I love you.

**Dean:** I love you too, man— you’re my best friend. _Oh yeah, oops Cas, for someone who had even run this through a bemused cousin Samandriel, he never did remember that little detail with the wording._

**Castiel:** _On the verge of tears now (drama queen)._ I mean that I am in love with you Dean. As more than a friend, if you wish it. _He always got overly formal when he was upset._

_And Dean would have paused, stuttered like his crappy black car, and blushed. This would have been followed by an embarrassed cough and a hand scratching behind his left ear, the tip of which would be turning a slight pink colour._

**Dean:** Wow, Cas. I, uh, I need some time to process— this. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

_But, ever the gentleman, he would have given Castiel a ride home anyway._

The devastatingly loud rock music that Gabriel had heard earlier confirmed the fact that Dean had tried to drown out the awkward. Everything else he had put together from years of being forced to listen to the lovesick.

Maybe he could write screenplays. Then he could spend all day at home and nobody could accuse him of being a layabout. He would be an _artiste_.

Anyway, Castiel curled up on the bed opposite Gabriel and grinned. He closed his eyes and Gabe was struck with the ridiculous urge to stroke him like a cat, that was how close Cas was to purring.

Ah well, tomorrow would decide it.

 

* * *

 

 

_Scratch. Scratch._

A hamster was eating Gabriel alive, starting with his eyes. Its itchy fur was all over his nose, its horrid scrabbly hands were catching on his eyelashes. _This wasn’t how it was supposed to end._

_Scratch, scra-scratch._

He sat bold upright. There was no fur, no whiskery little nose, no horrid unbrushed teeth. There was just him, the moon, and the midnight rendezvous of so many times before.

Honestly, Castiel should just not go to sleep in the evenings. A glance across the room revealed the he was coiled in the exact same position that he had assumed when he climbed into the bed. And while that had only been 2 hours ago, normal people did not sleep like that.

_Scrat-scrat pat-patpatpatpatpatpat scritscrascratch_.

Romeo was obviously impatient tonight.

Memory hazed itself back to Gabriel, who usually slept himself into a complete loss of context, and hit him around the head with a saucepan.

“Cas, Cas, come on Cas. Castiel.” It wouldn’t be right to soak him tonight.

Gabriel checked the time— 0:01— Dean had been honest when he had said he would talk tomorrow.

Gabriel tried running the syllables together, spreading them out like a frog in a biology lesson, howling them right into the name holder’s ear.

Maybe a Sleeping Beauty moment was called for; he should invite Dean right up.

“Cas-ti-el, your heart’s desire is outside the window. Dearest Dean is—” Wow. At Dean’s name the stone woke up.

He sat bolt upright and pushed Gabriel to the floor. So much for gratitude.

From his viewpoint on that same spot of carpet (he should really look into that) Gabriel could see foot twitching and hear whisper-yells of an intensity like never before.

And then Castiel left— for the first time, he actually snuck out at night. Of course it was the one time that there was no way Gabriel could sleep.

Brothers were stupid.

 

* * *

 

 

There was darkness. A little pressure on his shoulder, a shake. Gabriel opened his eyes to a pre-dawn silhouette of his wayward brother and the realisation that he really could sleep through anything.

As soon as his eyelids were out of the way Castiel started burbling. He was overflowing with emotion, but Gabe was too sleep-fugged to translate words into understanding. Something had happened, but who knew if it was good or bad.

“Aminut.” He just needed one minute to sort himself. Gabriel downed a glass of water, rinsed his face, and combed his hair. He needed to feel fabulous, just in case his skills as a comforter were required.

He returned to reality and to Castiel.

“Go ahead. I’m practically _dying_ here.” Sarcasm was always useful to cover up worry.

“He talked to me, Gabriel. And we talked about it. But we didn’t start off talking, oh he—”

“You were more succinct when you were twelve Cassie, and definitely more understandable.”

“Sorry.” The sun was clinging to an ascending cloud, applying rouge to Cas’ cheeks and making it hard for Gabriel to tell whether or not there was a hint of true blush there.

“We didn’t talk first. Because, because I went down there, and I didn’t have any shoes on actually. My feet are freezing. They’ve gone all red now.”

“Casti _el_.” At last there was some news which Gabriel would never package off to Balthazar and his brother would not spit it out.

“Sorry.”

“You already said that.” A significant eyebrow raise was needed here.

“Sorry.” Gabriel whipped out the eye roll. Here he was, long-suffering recipient of endless minute details but denied the ending.

“He— Dean.”

“I am aware who he is. Tell me, or I get Naomi to drag it out of you.”

“Sorry. Sorry I said it again, sorry.”

He may as well be asleep.

“I went down there, just below the window, and Dean said that there was one thing he needed to clear up before he responded. And then—” Castiel actually closed his eyes with the emotion of the memory, more living up to Gabriel’s characterisation of him.

“Then he kissed me Gabe.” This half-sentence lacked the fervour of that horrifying excitement; it held a calm that let Gabriel know that he didn’t need to listen anymore. It was all okay.

“It was amazing, and we did it again. Then he said it was amazing, and that he was sure now.”

Castiel flopped onto the floor, whirling like he had as a three year-old moving into a room with a real bed and his big brother for the first time, grinning like a twelve year-old who had just met the love of his life, dazed like an eighteen year-old who held all of those memories and more but could only bring himself to care about the last few hours.

“This all happened just below the window?” Gabriel could have just watched them and gone to bed earlier then, dammit.

Brothers were unimaginably stupid.

 At least now Gabriel could get some well-earned sleep.


End file.
